UNDOING THE CRUELTY

In his first 100 days in office, President Biden issued executive actions undoing over 540 harmful Trump-era immigration policies. The President lifted xenophobic travel bans, halted construction of Trump’s border wall, and restored protections for refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented individuals like Dreamers. 

During his first year in office, President Biden implemented nearly 300 executive actions on immigration, including measures to:

• Elevate the executive branch’s role in promoting immigrant integration and inclusion by reestablishing the Task Force on New Americans and requiring agencies to review immigration policies and regulations.
• Strengthen DACA protections after Trump’s efforts to roll back safeguards for undocumented individuals brought to the U.S. as children.
• Mandate the inclusion of non-citizens in the Census and the apportionment of congressional representatives.
• Reverse Trump’s expanded immigration enforcement within the U.S.
• Halt most border wall construction by terminating the national emergency declaration used to fund it.

Reuniting Families

The Biden-Harris administration established the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families to address the human tragedy that occurred when the Trump administration used the nation’s immigration laws to intentionally separate 5,460 children from their parents.

As of November 2023, the Task Force has reunified 795 children with their parents in the United States and has made behavioral health services available to those families. 

Access to Legal Pathways and Citizenship

In 2021, 809,000 immigrants became American citizens through naturalization. 

There were more than 8,800 military service members, veterans, and family members of service members naturalized in 2021.  

In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration reversed Trump's "Muslim ban," a xenophobic travel restriction that barred entry for passport holders from seven Muslim-majority countries; Trump’s policy impacted an estimated 90,000 people.

In 2021, Biden lifted a Trump-era limit on refugees and welcomed and resettled more than 11,400 refugees into the U.S.

More than 16,600 people were vetted and granted asylum in 2021.

In 2021, more than 79,000 Afghan nationals were paroled into the United States for a two-year period as part of Operation Allies Welcome.  

The Biden-Harris administration designated Myanmar and Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and re-designated Haiti, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. This action helped maintain and expand protections to an estimated 746,000 immigrants. While in office, Trump attempted to rip TPS protections from Haitians along with immigrants from several other countries.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, USCIS issued a policy in 2021 allowing survivors of crimes that caused mental or physical abuse, including domestic violence, to receive protections while their visa applications were pending. This action marked a sharp reversal from the Trump administration’s attempts to deport crime survivors.

Restoring Order and Safety at the Border

In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration strengthened anti-smuggling and anti-trafficking operations by working with regional governments to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and other crimes against migrants. In April 2021, DHS announced Operation Sentinel, a new operation targeting organizations involved in criminal smuggling. 

The Biden-Harris administration has made investments in border security and drug operations that led to a 54% increase in fentanyl seizures from 2020 to 2021, seizing 11,201 pounds of fentanyl in its first year compared to 7,267 pounds in 2020 under the Trump administration.

In December 2021, Biden signed two executive orders intended to fight drug trafficking and criminal networks, including new sanctions on companies trading ingredients of fentanyl. 

In 2021, Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill which included $3.4 billion for U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to build and modernize land ports of entry on the country’s northern and southern borders.

In 2021, President Biden sent the U.S. Citizenship Act to Congress, aiming to modernize the immigration system by establishing a new framework to responsibly manage and secure the border, enhance safety for families and communities, and improve migration management across the Hemisphere.

Addressing the Driving Factors of Migration

In April 2021, Vice President Harris announced $310 million in U.S. Government aid to address the driving factors of migration in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, focusing on economic and humanitarian assistance to address immediate needs of people in the region. 

In June 2021, Vice President Harris launched “In Her Hands,” an initiative focused on women’s economic empowerment, in collaboration with the Partnership for Central America. By 2030, the initiative aims to provide 5 million women in Guatemala with job support, financial literacy, and technical training.

Managing Migration and Ensuring Safety at the Border

In 2023, President Biden appointed Vice President Harris to lead the administration's initiative to address the root causes of migration. Harris’s focus was on El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, implementing the administration’s Root Causes Strategy to enhance security, governance, human rights, and economic conditions in the region.

Steps taken to soothe the root causes of migration include providing humanitarian aid, combating sexual, gender-based, and domestic violence, launching an anti-corruption task force, forming anti-smuggling task forces, securing international support for Central America, and encouraging investment to expand economic opportunities for communities in the region.

During FY 2023, nearly 238,000 individuals entered through the CHNV Process; critically, in the months immediately after its implementation, significantly fewer individuals from these countries attempted to cross the southwest border unlawfully.  

In 2023, more than 27,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized. 

In 2023, DHS announced that it had expanded its capacity to hold an additional 3,250 people in its facilities, for a CBP holding capacity of nearly 23,000

From April 2022 through September 12, 2023, CBP and HSI arrested nearly 17,000 suspected human smugglers and seized more than $51 million in property and nearly $13 million in currency. This has resulted in more than 2,000 indictments and more than 1,500 convictions in partnership with the U.S. attorneys. 

In June of 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a major administration policy by allowing the use of enforcement guidelines that prioritize the arrest and removal of noncitizens who pose a threat to public safety, national security, or border security. This policy helps ICE to focus on the most serious threats to national security.